FORGIVENESS

PAS Nantes 2015

Category : Feminine psychological drama Length : 90’ Language : Persian Shooting format : HD Shooting location : Iran Shooting dates : May-July 2016 Expected date of completion : October 2016 Stage of production : Development stage

Budget : 250 000 € Financing in place : 40 500 € Financing supports : Canada Council for the Arts & Le Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec Workshops and platforms attended : Maison des Scénaristes (Cannes 2014), Meeting on the Bridge (Istanbul 2015) Current situation : Seeking for International and European coproducer, international sales agent

Ali MOSAFFA – PRODUCER (Road Film) Sadaf FOROUGHI – DIRECTOR was born in , Iran. He studied Born in 1976 in Tehran, Iran, Sadaf Foroughi Civil Engineering at the but began her artistic career in 2003 when she then started acting in 1991 and since then he has started to create and produce short films, acted in some thirty Iranian films and a French documentaries and video art pieces. Sadaf production Le passé by . He started holds a master degree in French literature directing films with the short films, Incubus, The from Tehran Azad University. She graduated Neighbour and the documentary feature, The with MA in Film Studies from University of Deceit of Poesy. He then directed his first feature Provence (Aix-Marseille I). She also has a film, Portrait of a Lady Far Away (2005) starring degree in Film Production from New York and . His second Film Academy. In addition to her film career, film The Last Step starring Leila Hatami has she has also been involved professionally in received acclaim from critics and audiences creating photographic based interdisciplinary worldwide following its international premiere at arts and also video installations. She is the Karlovy Vary IFF 2012 and won many awards. Ali permanent member of the Iranian Short Film started producing films with his own film The Last Society (ISFA) since 2005 and also the Step and then produced a second one What’s the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs time in your world? which won the international Dramatiques (SACD) since 2010. critic’s FIPRESCI prize in Busan 2014.

SYNOPSIS DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT (extracts)

Ava is an upper-middle class high school senior in modern day « […] My main inspiration in writing Forgiveness was to examine Tehran, Iran. When her mother is suspicious of her secret the taboos that have been engraved in my mind and the minds of relationship with a boy, takes her to a gynaecologist to make sure many women whether Iranian or of other cultures. […] I have she is a virgin. The experience is so traumatizing for Ava that she always been intrigued by the concept of sexual repression. What develops insomnia and anxiety, leading her to have nightmares and has made sex such a restricted subject for so many women? I hallucinations. At the same time in Ava’s high school, a rumour about believe that the liberty to make one’s decision about one’s mind a schoolmate’s alleged dalliance and illegal abortion, which has been and body is an established biological principle for both women and putting her at risk of expulsion, spreads. For this reason, the school men. Just like a flower freely decides to turn its leaves to better principal and her team begin to carefully monitor all the behaviours face the sun, so too do human beings need freedom in deciding and actions of the schoolgirls. Fear of her secret relationship with her what is best for their bodies. […] In Iran, having a premarital boyfriend being disclosed to the school administration adds to Ava’s relationship is a shameless deed as a preeminent concern for mental obsessions and, gradually, turns into the deep-seated dread parents is that their daughters remain chaste until marriage. of pregnancy and childbirth. Discovering that her mother was Following the dramatically oppressive social and cultural changes pregnant with her out of conjugal bond only intensify her struggles, in early 80s Iran, these domineering practices found their way into eventually resulting in a failed suicide attempt in the school the public schools, which metamorphosed into venues meant to bathroom. Subsequently, to avoid being expelled from school drill the youth with their notions of sexism and religious fervour. [...] because of this deed, she agrees to become the headmaster’s I remember that, as a high-school student in the early nineties, the snitch, reporting on her classmates’ “unusual behaviour”. This is the threat of being punished for allegedly having simple relationship last push for guilt-ridden Ava, who cannot possibly carry such a with opposite sex had become a constant torment to my heavy burden. schoolmates and me. Our school administrators encouraged us to spy on our classmates and denounce them if they committed any CONTACT : forbidden act. […] Forgiveness is not an autobiographical film, but it Company Office : +98 21 8876 9012 depicts the stresses suffered because of oppression in this society, Ali Mosaffa: [email protected] and which came to define us as the post-revolutionary generation Sadaf Foroughi: [email protected] of Iranians.»